I used to watch her from my kitchen window．She seemed so small as she struggled her way through the crowd of boys on the playground．The school was across the street from our home and I would often watch the kids as they played during break．I remember the first day I saw her playing basketball．I watched in wonder as she ra
n circles a- round the other kids．She
managed to shoot jump shots just over their heads and into the net．The boys always tried to stop her but no one could．I began to notice her at other times, basketball in hand, playing alone．
One day I asked her why she practiced so much．Without a moment of hesitation she said, "I want to go to college．The only way I can go is to get a scholarship to save money for our family．I am going to play college basketball．I want to be the best．My Daddy told me if the dream is big enough, the facts don't count．" Well, I had to give it to her ?she was determined．I watched her through those junior high years and into high school．Every week, she led her school team to victory．
One day in her senior year, I saw her sitting in the grass, head in her arms．I walked up and sat down in the cool grass beside her．Quietly I asked what was wrong． "Oh, nothing," came a soft reply, "I am just too short．" The coach told her that she would probably never get to play for a top ranked team ?much less offered a scholarship —so she should stop dreaming about college．She was heartbroken and I felt my own throat tighten as I sensed her disappointment．I asked her if she had talked to Father about it yet．She told me that her father said those coaches were wrong．They just did not understand the power of a dream．He told her that if she truly wanted a scholar-ship, nothing could stop her except one thing —her own attitude．
The next year, as she and her team went to the Northern California Championship game, she was offered a scholarship and joined the college team．She was going to get the college education that she had dreamed of．.
The author was probably the girl's___ _．
| A．neighbor | B．friend | C．teacher | D．mother |
.
．Why was the girl's heart broken?
| A．She was considered too short to be a top player． |
| B．Her coach stopped her training because of her height． |
| C．She couldn't be on a college basketball team． |
| D．She wouldn't be admitted by her basketball friends． |
.
We can learn from the passage that ___ _．
| A．her family wouldn't like to pay her college fee |
| B．her father forced her to play basketball in collage |
| C．being a top basketball player can win a scholarship for college |
| D．she wouldn't like to turn to his father for help when in difficulty |
.
．Which proverb best matches the story?
| A．Practice makes perfect． |
| B．Rome was not built in a day． |
| C．Where there is a will, there is a way． |
| D．Pride comes before a fall． |
Since the first Earth Day in 1970, Americans have gotten a lot “greener” toward the environment ．“We didn’t know at that time that there even was an environment, let alone that there was a problem with it, ”says Bruce Anderson, president of Earth Day USA．
But what began as nothing important in public affairs has grown into a social movement ．Business people, political leaders, university professors, and especially millions of grass-roots Americans are taking part in the movement．“The understanding has increased many, many times, ”says Gaylord Nelson, the former governor from Wisconsin, who thought up the first Earth Day．
According to US government reports , emissions (排放)from cars and trucks have dropped from 10．3 million tons a year to 5．5 tons ．The number of cities producing CO beyond the standard has been reduced from 40 to 9 ．Although serious problems still remain and need to be dealt with , the world is a safer and healthier place ．A kind of “Green thinking ” has become part of practices ．
Great improvement has been achieved ．In 1988 there were only 600 recycling programs , ; today in 1995 there are about 6, 600 ．Advanced lights , motors , and building designs have helped save a lot of energy and therefore prevented pollution ．
Twenty –five years ago , there were hardly any education programs for environment ．Today , it’s hard to find a public school , university , or law school that does not have such a kind of program ．” Until we do that , nothing else will change! ” say Bruce Anderson ．According to Anderson , before 1970, Americans had little idea about ___
| A．the social movement |
| B．recycling techniques |
| C．environmental problems |
| D．the importance of Earth Day |
Where does the support for environmental protection mainly come from?
| A．The grass –roots level |
| B．The business circle |
| C．Government officials |
| D．University professors |
What have Americans achieved in environmental protection ?
| A．hey have cut car emissions to the lowest |
| B．They have settled their environmental problems |
| C．They have lowered their CO levels in forty cities． |
| D．They have reduced pollution through effective measures ． |
What is especially important for environmental protection according to the last paragraph ?
| A．Education |
| B．Planning |
| C．Green living |
| D．CO reduction |
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项 （A 、B 、C和 D ）中，选出最佳选项。
Arriving in Sydney on his own from India, my husband , Rashid, stayed in a hotel for a short time while looking for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children．
During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping．He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone．He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport．
He reported the case to the police and then sat there，lost and lonely in strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one．
Late in the evening, the phone rang．It was a stranger．He was trying to pronounce my husband’s name and was asking him a lot of questions．Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can（垃圾桶）that had been left out on the footpath．
My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents．Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers．Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents．At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend．
That family not only restored the important documents to us that day but also restored our faith and trust in people．We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way．What did Rashid plan to do after his arrival in Sydney?
| A．Go shopping |
| B．Find a house |
| C．Join his family |
| D．Take a vacation |
The girl’s parents got Rashid’s phone number from_______．
| A．a friend of his family |
| B．a Sydney policeman |
| C．a letter in his papers |
| D．a stranger in Sydney |
What does the underlined word “restored” in the last paragraph mean?
| A．Showed |
| B．Sent out |
| C．Delivered |
| D．Gave back |
Which of the following can be the best title for the text?
| A．From India to Australia． |
| B．Living in a a New Country． |
| C．Turning Trash to Treasure |
| D．In Search of New Friends． |
“We need carbohydrates, protein and fat — they are like the wood in the fireplace．The vitamins and minerals are like the match, the spark, for the fuel,” she explains．“We need them all, but in a very different proportions．And if the fuel isn’t there, the spark is useless.”From the first paragraph we know that working women .
| A．think cooking is especially complicated |
| B．do not share the same views with registered dietitians |
| C．are busy and not interested in cooking |
| D．are likely to eat healthfully |
Orange juice is different from orange drink in that .
| A．it contains only a small percentage of real juice |
| B．it is natural, nutritious and prepared from real oranges |
| C．it is largely orange-colored sugar water |
| D．it produces nothing but calories |
In Paragraph 4, “a fruitless search” means .
| A．an effort with no results |
| B．a search for a diet without fruits |
| C．a research on fruitless diet |
| D．a diet serving as medicine |
Justin Bieber may have millions of fans worldwide, but Russia’s bears don’t appear to admire the pop singer’s music --- which proved fortunate for one lucky fisherman.
Igor Vorozhbitsyn had his life saved by a Justin Bieber ringtone, when his mobile phone went off during a dangerous attack by a brown bear.
The 42-year-old was attacked as he was walking to a favourite fishing spot in northern Russia’s Yakutia Republic and firmly believed that he was going to be killed.
Wildlife experts believe the ringtone must have frightened the bear into stopping its attack.
‘Sometimes a sharp shock can stop an angry bear in its attack and that ringtone would be a very unexpected sound for a bear,’ explained one．
Mr Vorozhbitsyn suffered from cuts and severe wounds and was rescued when he was found by other fishermen after using the phone to call for help.
Mr Vorozhbitsyn ---now recovering from his wounds---explained: ‘I had parked my car and was walking towards the spot I’d marked out when there was a tremendous impact on my back and the bear was on top of me.’
‘I couldn’t believe my luck when the phone went off and it run away.’
‘I know that sort of ringtone isn’t to everyone’s taste but my granddaughter loaded it onto my phone for a joke,’ he added.
Adult brown bears can weigh as much as 600kg and have been known to kill wolves and even Siberian tigers.
Finally, this is a proof that Justin Bieber is unbearableIgor Vorozhbitsyn was attacked when____.
| A．he was fishing at his favourite fishing spot. |
| B．he was walking towards his favourite fishing spot. |
| C．he was phoning his granddaughter. |
| D．he was driving to his favourite fishing spot. |
The bear stopped attacking because___.
| A．Justin Bieber came to rescue Igor Vorozhbitsyn. |
| B．Justin Bieber sang to it. |
| C．Justin Bieber’s ringtone was a sudden fright to it. |
| D．Igor Vorozhbitsyn’s mobile phone was a sudden fright to it. |
What is the writer’s attitude towards Justin Bieber?
| A．positive |
| B．negative |
| C．neutral (中立的) |
| D．not mentioned |
What does the last paragraph imply?
| A．Justin Bieber’s music is popular all over the world. |
| B．Justin Bieber’s music is life-saving. |
| C．Justin Bieber’s music is threatening. |
| D．Even bears cannot stand Justin Bieber’s music. |
American researchers found females are the more talkative sex because of a special “language protein” in the brain.
The study, conducted by neuroscientists(神经学家) and psychologist from the University of Maryland, concluded that women talked more because they had more of the Foxp2 protein．The research, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, found that higher levels were found among humans that were women but in rats that were males．Their findings came after it was previously claimed that ladies speak about 20,000 words a day – over 13,000 more than men．“This study is one of the first to report a sex difference in the expression of a language-associated protein in humans or animals,” said Prof Margaret McCarthy, who led the study．In their study, the researchers attempted to determine what might make male rats more vocal than their female friends．
They separated four-day-old rats from their mothers and then counted the number of times they cried out in the “ultrasonic（超声波的） range”, the frequencies higher than humans can hear, over five minutes．While both sexes called out hundreds of cries, the males called out twice as often, they found．But when the pups were returned to their mother’s cage, she fussed over her sons first．Tests conducted on the parts of the brain known to be associated with vocal calls showed the male pups have up to twice as much Foxp2 protein as the females．The researchers then increased the production in the brains of female pups and reduced it in males．This led to the female rats crying out more often and their mothers showing more interest to them．In contrast, males became less “talkative”.
The researchers then tested samples from ten children, aged between three and five, which showed that females had up to 30 per cent more of the Foxp2 protein than males, in a brain area key to language in humans.
“Based on our observations, we assume higher levels of Foxp2 in girls and higher levels of Foxp2 in male rats is an indication that Foxp2 protein levels are associated with the more communicative sex,” said Prof McCarthy.
“Our results imply Foxp2 as a component (成分)of the neurobiological basis of sex differences in vocal communication in mammals.”From the second paragraph, we can learn that ________.
| A．women always speak more words than men |
| B．men and male rats have low levels of language protein |
| C．women and male rats have similar levels of Foxp2 |
| D．McCarthy isn’t the first to find females more talkative |
The underlined phrase “fussed over” in the third paragraph probably means______.
| A．paid attention to |
| B．related to |
| C．put pressure on |
| D．counted on |
The researchers carried out the experiments on rats in order to _______.
| A．test which part of the brain is key to language in rats and humans |
| B．prove the levels of Foxp2 protein in humans and rats are different |
| C．determine the reason why female rats are more talkative than male rats |
| D．discover the association between Foxp2 protein and vocal communication |
Which of the following can be the best title for the passage?
| A．Tests on humans and rats |
| B．Why women are the talkative sex |
| C．Sex differences in Foxp2 protein |
| D．Foxp2 protein determines oral ability |